Interesting reason for score jump

[Anonymous]

I got a score watch alert this morning that I had an increase of 6 points, yay.  But the reason was becuase an account that I had at $0 balance for months closed with a $9 balance.  That was interesting for it to cause such an increase.  Just thought I would share.  I do have 2 other credit cards showing balances as well, out of a total of 8 cards.

[unctarheel08]

this is somewhat confusing to me...

if i have two credit cards:

1) should i let one close with a balance between 1% and 9% and leave the other card at $0 or

2) let both cards close with a balance between 1% and 9%.

which method will give me the highest score?

thanks...

[chasmith]

Showing some usage (under 9% of each of about one third of your cards) seems to be better than having all cards report at 0 balance.  The theory is it shows you are using credit responsibly.

[unctarheel08]

so with only two credit cards (i only have about 18 months of history), i should only show a balance on one...correct?

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I got a score watch alert this morning that I had an increase of 6 points, yay.  But the reason was becuase an account that I had at $0 balance for months closed with a $9 balance.  That was interesting for it to cause such an increase.  Just thought I would share.  I do have 2 other credit cards showing balances as well, out of a total of 8 cards.

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Hi OP, SW alerts can be funny. They'll give you an alert for various reasons but the score change isn't always the result of that alert. For example, I got a SW alert that my score went up 20 points. Why? Because I added a new inquiry. Now we all know that an added inquiry will never increase your score, but a baddie fell off that SW didn't alert me to (they don't for dropped baddies) that resulted in the upward tick in score.

OP, if a TL closed with a $9 balance and if it was $0 before, I'd really take the time to investigate it as it could result in a CO real quick.

[Anonymous]

It is an active credit card, I just usually PIF every month, I just got a charge on it at the last moment and didn't realize before the statment posted.  I didn't notice any other changes on my credit report.

Thanks!